Prepare for the CG by producing standard-compliant work samples. The 2025 Application Guide splits certification into a preliminary application, a Part 1 portfolio (ethics, development activities, document work, and a kinship-determination project) and a Part 2 portfolio (ethics, a client research report, and a case study), each capped at 75 pages and judged by three to four evaluators against published rubrics. Build your study around the requirements themselves: cite, transcribe, and analyze records; write labeled kinship proofs; and keep every submission entirely your own work, free of AI generation and outside review.
What the credential assesses
Certification results from evaluating work samples in a portfolio submission; three to four evaluators independently assess each application against standards for documenting, researching, and writing.
BCG describes the portfolio as testing six skill areas: understanding research sources and methods; planning, executing, and reporting research; citing sources; evaluating evidence; proving kinship; and resolving genealogical problems. Use those six areas to identify where you need practice before beginning your portfolio.
The five-part Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) is the condensed frame your work must satisfy: research thoroughly, cite each non-common-knowledge item, analyze and correlate sources, information, and evidence, resolve conflicts, and write a soundly reasoned conclusion. Applications are scored with standards-based rubrics, which BCG publishes alongside the Application Guide.
Prepare by studying the required standards and practicing the kinds of research and writing the portfolio asks you to demonstrate. Check the independence rules before choosing work samples.
- Understanding research sources and methods
- Planning, executing, and reporting the results of research
- Citing sources
- Evaluating evidence
- Proving kinship
- Resolving genealogical problems
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections; Home - Board for Certification of Genealogists — Certification and evaluation overview; About BCG - Board for Certification of Genealogists — GPS, ethics, trademark, and history sections
How the two-part 2025 application works
Apply preliminarily, then submit Part 1 (Requirements 1–4). Part 2 (Requirements 5–7) follows only after Part 1 is judged sufficient. Each part has a 75-page limit, with the guide’s specified appendix exclusions.
On the preliminary application you specify the geographic area and time period where you normally work or are especially interested. BCG uses that specification only to select the historical document for Requirement 3; research for the other requirements can cover any location, period, or language. The preliminary fee also brings you three issues of OnBoard, BCG's newsletter.
Deadlines run from signatures and notifications. Part 1 is due within one year of the date you sign the preliminary application form, and you can purchase unlimited one-year extensions. Part 2 opens only when BCG notifies you that Part 1 is sufficient, and it is due within one year of that notification, with a single one-year extension available under extenuating circumstances. If you miss the final Part 2 deadline, the application lapses and you restart the entire process.
Portfolios are screened before evaluation. Incomplete submissions, or those with many severe problems, are not evaluated, though the Part 1 fee is refunded minus a processing fee in that case.
| Step | What you submit | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary application | BCG's form with your working area and time period, plus the fee; BCG then sends your application package | Before anything else |
| Part 1 | Requirements 1–4, no more than 75 pages, plus the Part 1 fee | Due within one year of signing the preliminary form; unlimited purchasable one-year extensions |
| Part 2 | Requirements 5–7, no more than 75 pages, plus the Part 2 fee | Only after Part 1 is deemed sufficient; due within one year of that notice, with one one-year extension under extenuating circumstances |
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections
The seven requirements at a glance
Part 1 contains the signed Code of Ethics, a development-activities list, document work on a BCG-supplied record, and a kinship-determination project. Part 2 repeats the ethics signature and adds a research report and a case study.
Follow the instructions and rubric for each requirement. Check documentation, research and writing separately so an otherwise complete work sample does not conceal an unmet criterion.
One structural rule shapes your planning: successful portfolios show diversity, so no research subject or family may appear in more than one work sample, with the single exception that a DNA test taker may appear in several samples when supplying genetic evidence for different research subjects.
| Requirement | Element | Core demand |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genealogist's Code of Ethics | Sign and date the code supplied with the application form |
| 2 | Development activities | List genealogy-related activities and how each improved your standards knowledge, research, or presentation skills |
| 3 | Document work (BCG-supplied document) | Cite, transcribe, abstract, and analyze the record; pose a research question; write a one-page research plan |
| 4 | Kinship-determination project | Descending narrative lineage through three ancestral generations with two labeled parent-child proofs |
| 5 | Genealogist's Code of Ethics | Sign again as part of the Part 2 form |
| 6 | Research report for another person | One commissioned report, sent exactly as the client received it, with images, authorization, and permission |
| 7 | Case study | A stand-alone proof argument resolving a significant relationship problem through indirect or negative evidence or conflict resolution |
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections
Requirement 3: the BCG-supplied document
BCG sends a document matched to your declared area and period, and you must produce seven treatments: a citation, transcription, abstract, source-and-information analysis, a research question, an evidence analysis tied to that question, and a research plan of one page or less.
The document may contain irregularities such as faded or illegible text, and no citation is provided for you, so you must construct one for the original record or from the image BCG supplies. If the document is in a language other than English, the transcription must be accompanied by a translation into standard English; non-English documents need prior consultation with BCG's executive director, arranged through your preliminary application.
The research question must be single, focused, and testable, identifying whom you would research and what you aim to discover. The research plan must build on information inside the document and on sources specific to its area, period, and subject, with every source identified and prioritized.
This is also the one requirement where BCG's AI interpretation is absolute: artificial intelligence may not be used for any aspect of the BCG-supplied document work, including transcribing, translating, abstracting, analyzing, and research planning.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections; BCG Announces Interpretation Regarding Use of AI — Interpretation text
Requirements 4 and 7: proving kinship under the GPS
Requirement 4 asks for a descending lineage through three ancestral generations and labeled parent-child proofs in different generations. Requirement 7 asks for a case study that meets the guide’s specified evidence techniques and problem types.
For the kinship project, proof statements are not enough; the two required parent-child links must be proof summaries or proof arguments, and they must be labeled. The project may use your own family but may not include you or your siblings, and it must use the numbering format of a narrative lineage in either NGS Quarterly or Register style. Every non-common-knowledge statement needs documentation, and each couple needs descriptive biographical information plus the names and vital data of their children. Document images are not required unless one is genuinely needed to illustrate a point.
For the case study, you choose and label one of three techniques: assembling indirect or negative evidence or both; resolving conflict between two or more direct-evidence items; or resolving conflict between direct evidence and indirect or negative evidence. Identity questions that separate same-named people, or merge identities to solve a relationship problem, are acceptable, but a study of a single identifying characteristic such as a birth date is not. Your discussion must describe the problem, present supporting and contradictory evidence with full citations, and state your conclusion with reasons for accepting it.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections
Requirement 6: a research report prepared for someone else
You submit one report written for and actually sent to a commissioning person, describing in-depth, authorized research into a genealogical problem, with an analysis of the problem, a detailed account of findings, and recommendations if the problem is unresolved.
The report must concern a family other than your own or your spouse's, and BCG warns that research sessions under twenty hours are unlikely to meet the bar. Genealogies, biographical narratives, case studies, and lineage-society applications do not qualify; the requirement is for a report describing research performed during a commissioned investigation. Pro bono work counts, so applicants without paying clients can seek authorizations from friends, neighbors, library users, or society members whose questions need in-depth research.
You submit the report exactly as it was sent to the client: no re-researching, altered documentation, or reformatting, though the delivery medium to BCG can differ. Alongside it go copies of all document images exactly as sent, the commissioning letter, email, or contract defining the project's limits on time, travel, and expense, and the client's specific written permission to use the report in your portfolio.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections
Independence, reuse, and the AI policy
Portfolio work must be entirely your own. No initial-application material may have been reviewed, critiqued, or proofread by anyone else, work from an unsuccessful prior application cannot be reused, and AI may not write or generate any submitted content.
The no-review rule has practical consequences for your preparation. Course assignments that an instructor graded or critiqued fall under it, so they cannot go into your portfolio as-is, and published work is excluded unless you submit an original unedited manuscript that meets all criteria. Research you did entirely on your own before applying is not automatically barred; it simply must satisfy each requirement's criteria like any other sample. Material from an earlier application that BCG never evaluated is not subject to the reuse restriction. A course-completion certificate is separate from the CG credential, which requires successful portfolio evaluation.
BCG's 2024 interpretation applies those same restrictions to artificial intelligence. Submitted work may not be written or generated by AI. You may use AI-powered search tools such as search engines, record hints, and online trees, spelling and grammar checkers, and translation tools for documents other than the BCG-supplied one, but not for the Requirement 3 document work. You assume responsibility for permissible use.
DNA evidence is not required for new applications, and BCG recognizes it is not always available or applicable. If you do use it, it must meet the DNA standards as well as every other applicable standard, and it is required only to establish a genetic relationship, not in every research question.
Practice exercise
You are considering four work samples for an initial CG application. Decide only whether the independence, reuse and AI rules rule each out; meeting other current portfolio criteria requires a separate check. A: a course assignment an instructor graded. B: research and writing you completed entirely yourself and never shared for review. C: your own research sample from an earlier application that BCG never evaluated. D: work on the current BCG-supplied document edited and translated using AI-powered tools.
Show the answer
A and D are ruled out on these facts. B is not barred simply because you completed it before applying. C is not barred by the previous-application reuse restriction when BCG did not evaluate that application. B and C are only potential samples: each must still meet the current requirement’s criteria.
The initial-application rules exclude material reviewed, critiqued or proofread by another person, which rules out A. The restriction on reusing an unsuccessful evaluated application does not extend to an application BCG never evaluated, so that restriction alone does not rule out C. BCG’s AI interpretation allows specified uses for other work but prohibits AI use for the supplied-document work, so D is ruled out. This exercise does not establish that an old sample satisfies a newly assigned document task or any other current portfolio requirement.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections; BCG Announces Interpretation Regarding Use of AI — Interpretation text
Preparation priorities and next steps
Anchor your study to the current Application Guide and rubrics, buy the current Genealogy Standards, and practice on your own unsolved problems rather than on someone else's templates.
Your required library is specific: you must purchase the current edition of Genealogy Standards, and BCG sends the rubrics and the Code of Ethics with your application package. Before you submit anything, study the rubric for each requirement so you know what evaluators read for in documentation, research, and writing.
BCG supports applicants with OnBoard, the private ACTION online group for preliminary applicants, and a Learning Center of webinars, articles, and blog posts on producing research that holds up. Use BCG's materials for expectations; no outside guide, including this one, substitutes for the current Application Guide, and no one can promise how an evaluation will come out.
- Read the 2025 Application Guide end to end before drafting anything.
- Buy the current Genealogy Standards and mark the standards each requirement cites.
- Download the rubrics and score your own drafts against them.
- Join ACTION after your preliminary application to see how the process is administered.
- Practice document work and proof writing on your own unsolved kinship problems, within the guide's scope.
- Check current fees on BCG's website; the amounts were not stated in the guide text this guide reviewed.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections; Home - Board for Certification of Genealogists — Certification and evaluation overview; BCG - Why I Became Certified — On Being Denied — Michael Hait (transcript) — Applicant account
Final checklist before you file
Confirm the format, independence, and deadline facts against BCG's own current publications, then submit.
A short list to close with, each item traceable to BCG's current guidance:
- Your preliminary application is on the 2025 guide's terms (filed from July 1, 2025); the earlier two-part pilot closed on 31 December 2024 and is historical.
- No part of your portfolio has been reviewed, critiqued, proofread, or AI-generated, apart from the permitted tools BCG lists.
- No research subject or family appears in more than one work sample, except a DNA test taker supporting different subjects.
- Part 1 is complete (Requirements 1–4, 75 pages or fewer) and submitted within your deadline, extensions purchased if needed.
- Every parent-child proof in Requirement 4 is a labeled proof summary or argument, not a proof statement.
- Your Requirement 6 report is exactly as the client received it, with images, authorization, and written permission attached.
Official sources: BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025 — Certified Genealogist Application sections; Become a Board-Certified Genealogist - Board for Certification of Genealogists — 2025 guide and pilot note
Official sources
Facts checked:
- BCG Application Guide 2025, for preliminary applications from July 1, 2025
- Become a Board-Certified Genealogist - Board for Certification of Genealogists
- BCG Announces Interpretation Regarding Use of AI
- Home - Board for Certification of Genealogists
- BCG - Why I Became Certified — On Being Denied — Michael Hait (transcript)
- About BCG - Board for Certification of Genealogists